Jerry my guess is that the op tried what xali suggested in the above post:

"I had the same issue of no sound from the speaker while connected, and the solution for me was that i had to open the pulse audio mixer and check the device in the output devices section."

I myself struggled for months on how to get my monitor with built in audio to work and to get bluetooth speakers I have to work. Turned out the Output Devices tab had to be set to the right output. In recent MX version(s) I notice that upon opening Pulse Audio Mixer it has all tabs showing except the OutputDevices tab. You have to scroll right or drag the window to the right to make it bigger to make it visible.

I have reinstalled MX17 and updated, The problem with bluetooth has reappeared.The icon comes up and all appears normal but there is no connection.Iget this message; connection failed did not receive a reply . possible causes include.The remote application did not send a reply,the message bus security policy blocked the reply,the reply timeout expired or the network connection was broken, I hope we can fix this MX is a great distro but this problem seems to be persistent.

I find it totally frustrating that a programme that is as good as MX17 has bluetooth that works so poorly if at all. In frustration I returned to Windows 10 to find that it works instantly out of the box BUT after an absence of 10 years I realize what a bloated distro it is.If only someone can put me on the right path to get bluetooth work in MX17.Please help,